Black Immigrant Daily News

Carlos Alcaraz is having a remarkable breakthrough season, and he has a chance to put an exclamation point on it after defeating Frances Tiafoe 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 in Friday’s US Open semi-final.

It will be 19-year-old Alcaraz’s first appearance in a grand slam final, and with a win against Casper Ruud in Sunday’s final he will also become the youngest world number one in men’s tennis history, beating out Lleyton Hewitt (20 years and nine months old) by over a year.

In a tight first set where both players failed to capitalise on their break point opportunities, Tiafoe saved an Alcaraz set point to force the tiebreaker, where he would finally secure the opening frame with the fourth set point of his own.

With such fine margins deciding the outcomes, some sloppy serving would flip the script in the second set. After Tiafoe had no double faults in the first and Alcaraz had three, it was Alcaraz cleaning things up to post zero for the rest of the match.

Meanwhile, Tiafoe had a pair of costly double faults in the second, which ultimately led to the only break in the set, as Alcaraz converted one of his four opportunities, while saving the three break points he faced.

Tiafoe’s vaunted serve continued to meltdown in the third frame, dropping his first-serve accuracy from 67 per cent to 30 per cent, which led to him winning just 35 per cent (seven-of-20) of his service points as Alcaraz lifted.

Alcaraz needed only 34 minutes to wrap up the third set, thanks in large part to Tiafoe committing 12 unforced errors with only six winners, as the Spaniard finished the set with just one ace and four winners.

As the double faults and unforced errors faded away, Tiafoe rediscovered the kind of form and fight that saw him stylishly handle the challenge of Rafael Nadal earlier this week. Tiafoe and Alcaraz traded breaks in four consecutive games in the fourth set, with the American having to save a match point to force another tiebreaker where he would prevail.

But Alcaraz would not be denied, grabbing a crucial break in the opening game of the fifth set, and when Tiafoe snatched it back, his joy was short-lived as Alcaraz re-broke in the very next game to-love, and once more to finish the match.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

El informe preliminar de COVID-19 del Departamento de Salud (DS) reportó el sábado 5 muertes y 273 personas hospitalizadas.

El total de muertes atribuidas es de 5,036.

Hay 245 adultos hospitalizados y 28 menores. El monitoreo cubre el periodo del 25 de agosto al 7 de septiembre de 2022.

La tasa de positividad está a 22.42 por ciento.

Se reportan 5 defunciones adicionales a causa del COVID-19. Unas 273 personas están hospitalizadas; 245 adultos y 28 pediátricos. Al medio día se ofrece una actualización de los datos que incluye el status de vacunación; https://t.co/8KaFLZcGta

— Departamento de Salud de Puerto Rico (@desaludpr) September 10, 2022

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Seven months after it was first mentioned, the Government is one step closer to implementing a gun amnesty.

The House of Representatives passed the Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act this week, with National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang stating that the amnesty will be declared as soon as the new Act is entered into force.

The Bill now goes to the Senate for debate and passage before moving onto the Governor-General for his assent, at which time it becomes the law of the land. The Senate has set aside two days – September 22 and 23 to debate the Bill.

Chang, who piloted the Firearms Bill, explained that the amnesty will allow persons who may be in possession of illegal firearms the opportunity to surrender these weapons to the State without the fear of prosecution. He pointed to Clause 19 of the Bill which gives the power to the minister to declare a firearms amnesty, by order, subject to affirmative resolution.

“The amnesty may be declared upon the minister being satisfied that it may result in the reduction in the number of illegally possessed firearms or ammunition in the country,” Chang stated. He said a public education campaign will be undertaken along with the expansion of the get-the-guns programme.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness earlier this year announced a campaign targeting gunmen and illegal guns. Under the initiative, up to $500,000 is paid for the information that leads to the seizure of illegal weapons.

Firearm amnesties have been used globally as an operational tool to reduce high levels of armed violence resulting from the proliferation of firearms and ammunition. Examples of countries where successful amnesties have been employed are Australia and South Africa.

“This Administration will not relent. We must rid our country of illegal firearms and ammunition, and those who do not heed will feel the full force of this new legislation with the strict and stringent penalty regime to be in effect,” Chang warned.

The security minister also informed that under the new legislation, the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) will be established as a body corporate.

He explained that as a body corporate, the Authority will have its own legal identity and will now be empowered to perform several activities, to include entering into contracts in its own name, initiating and responding to legal claims, acquiring real and personal property, and using its own official seal.

“The lack of legal status of the FLA has presented a number of challenges for the members of the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive Officer who are often required to respond to legal claims and appeals with respect to firearm authorisations, in their individual capacities. The Authority is also challenged in effectively carrying out its daily business operations,” Chang pointed out.

Some new functions have been added to the responsibilities of the FLA, to include establishing and maintaining a register of approved brokers and their activities (since brokering has now been introduced as an activity); the marking of firearms, and maintaining records in relation to such marking; conducting ballistic testing, capturing ballistic signatures in relation to privately-owned firearms, and capturing related information with respect to firearms that are the subject of authorisations granted by the Board.

Meanwhile, Dr. Chang said the government is sensitive to what is happening on the ground, adding that “we know that illegal firearms are being used to cut down the lives of our young men”.

“This Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction, and Regulation) Act, 2022 is intended to curb the murder projections and stem the tide of criminal violence in our country. We know that legislation alone will not reduce the level of homicides overnight,” he said.

“We are confident, however, that this piece of legislation presents a strong deterrent to persons who are involved in trafficking, diversion, manufacture, stockpiling and the movement of firearms, their parts, components and ammunition… and we will not apologise for that,” the minister added.

He expressed that the legislation is an effective tool for the police who have been successful in apprehending and prosecuting, but lamented that the current system has become a revolving door for hardened criminals.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

(OBSERVER by Newsco) Discussions are underway to expand the foreign language curriculum in schools.

This expansion will see Mandarin being taught in other schools beside the Sir Novelle Richards Academy, which to date is the only public school in Antigua and Barbuda that has an official Mandarin department.

According to the Director of Education, Clare Browne, plans are being put in place to have the language taught in other secondary schools as well.

However, the missing element, he said, is the number of teachers in that field.

“We have to have Mandarin teachers to spread it across all the 13 public secondary schools that we have. At this time, we have not had, at least I do not know of any application that has come before us for teaching Mandarin and so, once we are able to find teachers,” Browne said.

He explained that there should be at least two to three Mandarin teachers, depending on the size of the school plant.

Due to this need, the director made a call for persons interested in teaching the language to apply at the Ministry of Education.

“I know several persons here in Antigua and Barbuda would have studied in China … and if they are interested in offering themselves to be a teacher of Mandarin in any of our schools, feel free to apply.

“We would love to take Mandarin to other schools. As a matter of fact, I was just discussing with the deputy director and Mrs Mills the other day of taking Mandarin because they have started a kind of sort of way at Glanvilles Secondary and so, we wanted to put it there in a definitive, kind of way. Once the resources allow, once we are able to find a human resource, we will spread it as quickly as we can,” Browne added.

Browne was speaking on Thursday morning at the press conference to announce this year’s CSEC results.

Last year, CEO of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Dr Wayne Wesley hinted at plans for the inclusion of Mandarin across the region.

Mandarin is a group of Sinitic (“Chinese”) languages and dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China.

French and Spanish are the two modern languages which are generally taught for the CSEC curriculum but in 2017, 65 students from Barbados and Guyana registered for the exam to write Portuguese for the first time.

In 2013, Guyana became the first country to have Portuguese taught in secondary schools.

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